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Television

Submission + - A Media Server Doesn't Have To Be An Energy Hog

Submitted by
peterdaly
peterdaly writes: "A media server doesn't have to be a power hungry energy wasting beast of a machine. Here's one way to build an energy efficient MythTV server without wasting watts. Based on the Via EPIA Mini-ITX M-Series platform, this real world example cuts the power usage of a home media server by more than half. The machine it replaced pulled an average 83 watts. This one tips the meter at 37 watts. In this case, it saves about $40/year in addition to the environmental benefits."
Communications

Submission + - Good Cell Phones for Sysadmins?

Submitted by laserdog2.0
laserdog2.0 writes: My work provides me with a cell phone, and the only feature I care about is it's ability to wake me when it receives an email from my monitoring scripts.

My current phone beeps once softly, and then never again, which results in me continuing to sleep and angry customers.

So I want a better phone, and rather than pour through online PDFs or make cell phone store employees scratch their heads, I thought I'd ask for some recommendations of phones that have fit the bill for other Sysadmins out there.

Thanks!
Biotech

Submission + - Lighting the nanoworld with nanolamps

Submitted by
Roland Piquepaille
Roland Piquepaille writes: "An interdisciplinary team of researchers at Cornell University (CU) has built 'nanolamps.' These extremely small light bulbs are made of light-emitting nanofibers about the size of a virus or the tiniest of bacteria. Using a technique called electrospinning, the researchers spun the fibers from a metallic element, the ruthenium, and a polymer. These nanofibers "are so small that they are less than the wavelength of the light they emit." Apparently, these nanofibers are easy to produce. But before they can be integrated into our increasingly smaller electronic devices, there still is a need to know how long these nanolamps can last. Read more for additional references and a picture of the orange glowing organic nanodevices."
Hardware Hacking

Submission + - New MoBo has IDE boot disabled - is there a fix?

Submitted by
wattsup
wattsup writes: "I recently purchased an MSI G965M-FI motherboard for a system upgrade. Overall the board is pretty good with lots of features, but it had one "unexpected feature" that I didn't know about when I bought it. The PATA100 IDE port won't allow you to install an operating system from a CD-ROM attached to it.

While its on their website, MSI doesn't tell you this on the retail packaging, until you break the seal on the static wrap and look at the motherboard. There, with a tiny labelplaced over the IDE connector to inform you "This IDE does not support OS installation in hard drive".

This made my out-of-box experience rather maddening, as I had to go get a USB based CD-ROM to install a fresh copy of XP.

This seems like a pretty lame way to save money, disabling functionality on an IDE port that's included. Some research shows me that other manufacturers are doing the same.

My question is; Does anybody know if this is an issue that can be fixed by upgrading the BIOS, or is this hard-wired?"

Feed Guidelines for autonomous killbots proposed (engadget.com)

From feed by engfeed

Filed under: Robots

Suggestions in regard to robotic rights seem to be flying off the shelves these days, but an engineer at the Naval Surface Warfare Centre has concocted an interesting set of guidelines catering to autonomous killbots of the future. Most likely, it's just a matter of time before machine-on-machine violence becomes commonplace, and John Canning's "Concept of Operations for Armed Autonomous Systems" outlines just how lethal robots should handle themselves when faced with potentially deadly conflicts. Interestingly, the document suggests the the bots should be allowed to make their own decisions when it comes to blasting or forgiving fellow robots, but before they pull the trigger on a human, it should request guidance from a flesh 'n blood friendly. Still, a definite loophole exists in the fact that these simple-minded killers could aim for a "human's weapon" without asking permission, and when his awful auto-aim programming leads to a costly casualty, it'll simply be deemed "collateral damage." Can't say we like the sound of that. [Warning: PDF read link]

[Via El Reg]

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
Announcements

Submission + - Free Newzbin Credit! IRC CHALLENGE

Submitted by
Anonymous Coward
Anonymous Coward writes: "Pop along to irc.newzbin.com, and join channel #newzbin. To spice things up a little this weekend, and raise the numbers, we thought you might like a little incentive. Currently, there's 85 people on #newzbin. If this reaches 500 simultaneous over the weekend, I'll give every premium member 2 weeks credit. If it reaches 1000 simultaneous, I'll give every premium member 4 weeks. If it reaches 2000 simultaneous or beyond, it'll be 8 weeks. So come on, join in the weekend party :)"

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